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In a letter sent in late 2017 to provincial and federal officials, leaders of Grassy Narrows First Nation said they had “serious concerns” about board chair Margaret Wanlin and the doctor appointed to assess adults, Winnipeg neurologist Stefan Pacin. “These concerns include a perceived bias against, and insensitivity toward, Indigenous Peoples.”

A local resident catches a fish in the Wabigoon River that is contaminated with mercury near Grassy Narrows First Nation, Ontario. (Todd Korol / Toronto Star)

The Mercury Disability Board, set up by government officials in the mid-1980s to compensate those who can show doctors they suffer symptoms consistent with mercury poisoning, has approved claims from 350 applicants who suffer from tremors, loss of muscle co-ordination, slurred speech and tunnel vision.

Roughly 70 per cent of applicants have been turned down for compensation, and the system has been criticized as being inadequate. The board was recently reviewed by lawmakers and Indigenous leaders, and while the results of that review are not yet known, the provincial govenment has recently proposed upping the disability payments to victims of the industrial pollution.

The letter provided no details of the alleged bias, and board chair Wanlin told the Star no one has followed up to give her any. She said she has done hard and good work for the board, and she will finish the remainder of her two-year term — her fifth in a row — and leave the job this summer.

When asked if she was fired or if her leaving the board was prompted by the letter, she said of the letter: “Obviously it’s been a factor in things.”

Pacin said he was insulted and slandered by the letter, that he has done no wrong, and wanted an apology. He did not get one, he said, and then quit.

“I have served as a neurologist examining people for potentially mercury toxicity benefits purposes for almost 15 years, and I have never been approached regarding a personal problem with my conduct,” he said. “I can, with good conscience, state that I have treated everyone with proper respect, and some of the community members have even become my friends.

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“The chiefs of both reserves have never come to me, ever, to provide any feedback, comments or even just to greet me,” Pacin told the Star in an email. “My conduct has always been respectful, and I have provided the requested service with complete integrity and honesty.”

The mercury poisoning of the residents of Grassy Narrows and the fish they eat has been well documented after the old Dryden pulp and paper mill, operated then by Reed Paper, dumped 10 tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon River system between 1962 and 1970.

The compensation system was set up in the 1980s after a legal settlement between Grassy Narrows and nearby Wabaseemoong Independent Nations (Whitedog), federal and provincial officials, and two paper companies. Pacin said the compensation system was agreed to at the time by chiefs of both Indigenous communities, which now have the authority along with provincial and federal officials — not the board — to change it.

Pacin said the board’s system of compensation is “poorly functioning.” He said board members “did their best to optimize a suboptimal situation.” He said he has long advocated for change. He said he gave neurological assessments but did not decide who was entitled to benefits.

“There are numerous problems with the remuneration system, numerous facets to the actual mercury contamination itself, and many and complex factors contributing to the poor overall general health of the two communities of concern,” he wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to the board and Indigenous leaders.

Physical symptoms of mercury poisoning include loss of muscle co-ordination and tunnel vision. Fetuses are particularly vulnerable to cognitive damage.

The board is governed by a “Plan Document” that dictates how it operates. Any changes to that document must be approved by both Indigenous communities as well as the federal and provincial governments, Wanlin said.

Before this latest controversy, the board had been critcized for not fully or sensitively serving the residents of Grassy Narrows and Whitedog.

Since its formation, the board has paid a total of $22 million. A 16-point scale is used by the board and its doctors to judge the severity of symptoms. A score of 6 is required for a minimum payout of $250 per month. The maximum amount is $800 per month. The benefit, once approved, is for life.

As the Star has already reported, this payout range has not increased in the 32 years of the board’s existence. Had the disability payments increased with inflation, according to the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, they would be more than double what recipients are receiving today.

In March, the Liberals tabled a budget that called for payments to increase so they are indexed to inflation from now on, and also for back-payments to current disability board recipients that the government called “retroactive indexing.”

“The right thing to do is to index the benefits, regardless of there being no legal requirement,” said a letter from David Zimmer, minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, to leaders of Grassy Narrows and Whitedog.

A ministry spokesperson said “indexing … benefits could have an immediate and potentially singificant impact on the lives of eligible members of Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong.”

The provincial budget has not yet been approved, and if it is, the planning document that governs the disability board must also be amended with consent from Ottawa, Queens Park and both First Nations.

The Grassy Narrows First Nations Reserve has been plagued by the neurotoxin for over 50 years after a pulp and paper company dumped 10 tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon River. (Randy Risling/Toronto Star)

The criteria for an award have not changed since the board’s inception. A top mercury expert has said today’s science shows the neurotoxin can cause damage at low levels previously considered harmless.

Since the board’s inception, 775 of 1,121 total applicants have been turned down.

In a 2011 report, Japanese mecury experts who visited Grassy Narrows said they found 74 per cent of people they diagnosed as affected or possibly affected by mercury were not receiving any form of compensation.

Wanlin had told the Star that in 2010 the board reviewed science from all over the world and could not find a better “diagnostic test” for applicants.

Spurred in part by a brief hunger strike in 2014 by Steve Fobister Sr. of Grassy Narrows, the board underwent a sweeping review by representatives from the provincial and federal governments as well as from Whitedog and Grassy Narrows.

In December, Grassy Narrows leaders, in a written submission prepared by a lawyer, told the provincial and federal officials reviewing the board:

“Community members engaging with the system have been routinely exposed to discriminatory treatment on the basis of race and disability. In addition to dealing with accessibility barriers, individuals are treated by the assessing physicians with a lack of respect, are made to feel that they are lying about their symptoms, and that if they get benefits they will just spend the money on alcohol. They are told that they do not have mercury poisoning and that their health problems are a result of alcoholism and inbreeding.”

The community also said the board has failed to compensate people with clear symptoms, “people who were fishing guides, and people who were diagnosed by the Japanese doctors as having mercury-related health effects.”

In response, Wanlin told the Star that “the board provides barrier-free access to medical assessments,” and that community members have access to a board member who lives in their communities, as well as other health system supports.

Wanlin also said rejected applicants can have the decision reviewed by the board “Service Committee,” which includes board doctors and community representatives. Wanlin added that the legislation says there is no external appeal process, that a rejected applicant can reapply after two years, and that any change to this process would need to come from lawmakers and leaders from the affected communities.

Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Glen Murray (L) and Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation David Zimmer receive a traditional pipe filled with tobacco from Judy Da Silva after their meeting regarding mercury contamination in Grassy Narrows, Ontario, on June 27, 2016. (Todd Korol/Toronto Star)

After the mercury dumping in the 1960s, locals like Judy Da Silva started noticing something was wrong when fish began floating to the river’s surface, turkey vultures started to fly as if drunk, and mink and otter disappeared. The robust fishing tourism industry, especially at famous Ball Lake Lodge, was decimated. The commercial fishermen and guides went on welfare.

In the years since, as independent scientists sounded alarms, government official after government official repeated that the river was cleaning itself naturally of mercury and that there was no ongoing source of the neurotoxin.

Over the past 18 months, the Star and scientists have revealed that fish downstream near Grassy Narrows remain the most contaminated in the province, that there is mercury-contaminated soil and river sediment at or near the site of the old mill, and the provincial government knew in the 1990s that mercury was visible in soil under that site and never told anyone in the communities. Scientists strongly suspect that old mercury still contaminates the mill site and is polluting the river.

Last year, the province committed $85 million to clean the river and the federal government promised $5 million to build a home for people suffering from mercury pollution.

“I have never seen a case of such gross neglect. I am embarrassed as a Canadian that this ever happened,” then-Ontario environment minister Glen Murray said last year.

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